People’s Minister of Energy and Petroleum and PDVSA President Rafael Ramírez said that the Ministerial Conference of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is prepared to cut its output during the 151st Meeting of the Organization to be held on Wednesday.

“The important thing is that there is consensus as to the need to cut the output and we will make a significant cut,” said the minister on arriving in Oran, Algeria.

The minister and PDVSA president added that the OPEC will remove at least one million bpd from its official supply. “The point at issue is that falling prices should be stopped; therefore, we are taking the necessary steps,” said Ramírez.

The meeting of the OPEC ministers, scheduled for Wednesday, will be the fourth one since September; on this occasion, the market behavior will be assessed.

Following the move towards reduction effective on November 1st, under which Venezuela has removed 129,000 bpd from its share, the OPEC Secretary-General urged member states to abide by the agreement in order to mitigate the downward trend shown by oil prices over the past few months, attributable to slowdown of the global economy and subsequent decrease of the crude oil demand.